THE FERNY MOORLANDS. 



grace. You will always have time to enjoy the 

 lovely peeps of Fern-land which, are to be ob- 

 tained between Totnes and Newton ; for the steep 

 inclines necessarily render the eight miles of 

 railway journey between the two places unusually 

 long. 



Changing trains at Newton, on our way to the 

 moors, we were not long in getting to our point 

 of departure at Moretonhampstead. On this 

 branch line, twelve miles in length, the changing 

 scenes are supremely beautiful. During the whole 

 distance the line passes along a valley which is 

 pre-eminently Devonian. Ib is curious and in- 

 teresting to watch in the early summer the gradual 

 substitution of the barren moorland for the cul- 

 tivated tract. Grand slopes of rich greenwood, 

 flower-dotted meadows and June corn-crops 

 standing proudly up, with rich promise for the 

 autumn the light, waving green of the corn- 

 stalks and ears charmingly contrasting with the 

 red and full-blown poppies scattered in patches 

 here and there first meet the eye. But the cul- 

 tivated land is shorn of no picturesque surround- 

 ings. Hill, wood, and river, each with its peculiar 



